April Showers
From that moment on, none of us were ever quite the same. /High School AU, character study, for Frog-kun/
hi frog. This is late. Sorry. Hope this makes sense.
1. Hitomi.
Homura scrunched her eyebrows together, eyes blinking around three times more than normal. With her lips pressed into a straight line and a cheek puffing up, she continued to mull over her maths homework. Lightly tracing numbers, figures and patterns on the thin homework sheet with her mechanical pencil, the complex collection of letters, numbers and symbols confused her. Staring down at her homework would probably end up with Homura watching the text enlarge and escape into the air. Something ridiculous and fanciful like that.
With her two hands, Homura covered her mouth in attempt to mask a yawn. She hardly slept last night, and she grew tired of the usual warm milk, or late night television. Insomnia had struck her for the past few days, and Homura had been helplessly dragged in its flow. Feeling more miserable than ever, the dull looking girl narrowed her eyes and stretched her arms across her desk. It was a given that she wouldn't usually do such a thing in normal circumstances, but the classroom was more or less devoid of human activity. She had been the first to arrive in her class – morning duty, it wasn't as if she did it for fun – but the school was a lot different in the early morning. It was a given for it to be more tranquil and peaceful, but Homura felt that there was a sense of odd stillness, a calm she couldn't experience during any other time she could think of. Yes – she had been mulling over her homework all last night and she was just barely finishing. Curses for doing it at such last notice, but club activities and general unavoidable commitments meant that the sixteen year old couldn't just do what she liked to in her spare time. Maybe that way she could just travel through high school life seamlessly, without trouble. She would just glide through it all, like a leaf on water, just so she didn't have to stop and think.
Homura finished her final question when the next person slid open the sliding doors to walk almost soundlessly into the classroom. Homura more or less guessed how to answer the homework questions, reading back on the notes she took last lesson, face paling when she realised that they didn't help whatsoever. She perhaps should have seriously consider asking Koizumi-san, who people said was brilliant at taking notes -
"Good morning, Akemi-san." The person greeted fondly, but with the general detached tone of a classmate you didn't know that well. Homura looked up, a bit reluctantly, not quite knowing what to say.
"Shizuki-san." Homura greeted, tone a little sombre, hesitant. "Y-You're early today."
The girl by the door, with the perfectly straightened vivid green hair and a rather... creepy smile. To Homura, it looked creepy – although she knew it was just her own wrapped vision. Shizuki Hitomi was a popular girl, loved by all, adored by many – and a girl known to the whole year group. Homura though, she was just a nobody. An invalid. On some restless nights, Homura would wonder what life would have been like if she was born into this world as Shizuki Hitomi with the perfect hair, lying smile instead of the plain, boring, glasses wearing Akemi Homura who was awkward with people and pushed them away without even meaning to. At that, she started biting her bottom lip. It trembled, quivered even, and Homura decided not to wonder what Shizuki Hitomi's current feelings of the situation was, no matter how tempting the prospect was.
"Were you on morning duty today? Good work." Shizuki-san was ever so polite, as per usual. Nothing strange or off right there. Homura dared not to meet her gaze that was so obviously on herself. Honestly, Homura could name a million reasons why making eye contact was fatal when it came to talking to people. She'd been told time and time again that there was this odd fear in her eyes when the girl would be forced to look at people she didn't particularly want to talk to. Sure enough, they got the hint, but it just meant the rumours and the whispering got worse. It was not hard for Homura to admit that she was scared of the green snake's razor sharp eyes, or the way her lips curled into a 'pleasant' smile. She was too nice. She was too giving. She was too perfect. And naturally, a girl like Homura, who sat at the back of the class and watched the others obit her world was wary. Call it anything you want – bitterness, jealousy – but Homura was on edge every time she had to communicate with the class representative.
Homura evened her breathing to a normal pace, and grabbed the fabric of her school uniform – right above her chest. This heavy, suffocating feeling made her feel queasy, like she was going to faint just from talking to the other girl. Trying to take her mind off it, and to attempt to be polite (because no matter how wary she was of the green haired beauty, Shizuki-san was being polite and Homura could not allow the other girl to realise her strange feelings of the girl) so Homura attempted a 'thank you' from her quivering lips, hoping that she could pass it off as being nervous, rather than genuine fear for the other. In fact, it was a stretch, but Homura could even despise the other girl. She had no idea why she would think this way, because the two spoke less than five times in a whole school year, but there was just something, something she didn't like, she hated about her.
Enough about that. Enough.
"Are you okay, Akemi-san? You sound terrible. You don't have a cold or anything, do you? I mean, I know some kind of bug is coming around, but I wouldn't want you to suffer from it." Shizuki shook her head, not smiling any more. It was then Homura wondered whether or not her classmate could read her mind, and was currently thinking of how to punish her for thinking that way toward the other.
"N-No, at least, I don't think so?" Homura answered uneasily, eyes narrowing, looking down at her desk even more, staring at the lines that told the wood's character. "B-But you know, you might be right."
Homura had no idea what was happening. She barely registered the fact that Shizuki had walked across to the other side of the classroom from her original position by the teacher's desk over to the seat in front of Homura's own. Then – then the dangerous girl sat herself down, used a finger to force her forehead up to meet her eyes – d-damn. Now she was going to see her stupid, fear stricken eyes.
For some reason, Homura felt a bit comforted by this. Maybe it was because it was her own little personal rebellion without words. Homura was far from brave, and perhaps this was her own personal stand against the devil in the skin of a sixteen year old high school girl. Yet, Homura wanted nothing but to turn away from that strong, sharp gaze that seemed to seep into her very soul. What was the devil going to do? Slap her? Spew and thread a million lies about hurt feelings and disbelief? Homura had yet to experience it.
But Shizuki Hitomi did none of those things.
Instead, she laughed.
Nothing could have possibly prepared her for Shizuki's reaction, and rather, it confused her – like a switch, it seemed as if something Homura did angered her.
"You." She spoke, eyes challenging and set alight. "You think of me differently than all the people who sit in here. Although." Shizuki paused for effect, probably. "You're wrong. You're completely wrong. Don't pretend to know me, when you're not even a millimetre closer than these foolish classmates of ours. Stop being so arrogant. I know a hateful gaze when I feel one, especially from the back of the class." Her tone was... not as harsh as Homura imagined it, yet it reeked of something deeper. Maybe Homura had always known Shizuki Hitomi was not some 2D cardboard cut out anime figure. Or perhaps her presumptions of Shizuki were wrong? Was she really just dense and happy with the world, easy going and oozing with charm?
Before returning to her own desk, Shizuki smiled softly again, her gaze softening. "Don't get close to my friends. They're mine. Especially Madoka. Touch her, and I don't mind ruining you with these damned hands."
Or maybe it was just the expectation. Perfection, no matter how beautifully one would paint it, was still nothing but a flimsy illusion.
But... Madoka? (It seemed like Homura did not completely register the other girl's warning until two minutes afterwards.) She didn't remember a Madoka. ….Not now, anyway. But something told her that they'd meet when the time was right. And Homura was a girl who stayed true to her instincts, no matter how much she'd doubt them.
hello this didn't make any sense whatsoever but -
please review if you liked it ;; it's something like the beginning of my comeback hahahaha fun